Tuesday, August 25, 2015
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The Story Related To The Words: "To Beat Ah Keang To Stop The Rain, To Beat Ah Kork To Make The Sun Shine"

12:32 AM



These words are the words which were always shouted by the early children when there was rain. The children were very bored with rain because they could not go for a walk anywhere, so they often sat on the stairs and shouted: "To beat a gong to st0p the rain and to beat Ah Kork to make the sun shine." The following is a folktale related to these words: Once there was a man going to learn literacy at a pagoda and what he could remember were only "No Mo Putheayak Sithaing 0r Ar Oek Ei and nothing more. Therefore, the teacher and other students called him the "Oek Ei" man. The "Oek Ei" man was so angry that he walked away from the pagoda and his village. He found an old deserted pagoda in the forest far from the villages. He also found some old monk's robe there, so he wore it and ordained himself as a Buddhist monk. The people who walked past that pagoda saw the monk living alone, so they sent their children to serve him. The Oek Ei monk had two students, one of whom was called Ah Keang and another called Ah Kork During the Pchum Ben festival (festival for the dead), there were no people going to hold any religious festival in the pagoda of Lok Km Oek Ei. Lok Kru Oek Ei told Ah Keang and Ah Kork to go to pick up the discarded banana leaves already used to wrap up Nom Ansom cakes and piled them up in the compound of his pagoda to make the passers-by think that there were also many people coming to hold some religious festivals in this pagoda. No matter what he did, there were still no people going to that pagoda. Due to food shortage, Lok Kru Oek Ei ordered his students to steal a farmer's plough and hide it at a particular place and then went to tell their teachers about the hiding place. Then, he ordered them to go to boast about him in front of me plough owner that their teacher was very good at predicting things and that their teacher would accept only a tray of food. Ah Keang and Ah Kork went out to do what was told by their teacher. The farmer who lost his plow could not find it no matter how hard he tried, so he prepared a tray of food and offered it to [ok Kru Oek Ei, who took out a slate and a piece of chalk to write "Eok Ei, Oek Ei" on it for a moment before telling the owner the place and the direction in which the plow had been hidden. The farmer went to find his plow at the place and the direction Lok Kru Oek Ei had pointed his finger to and really saw his plow, so when he went back to the village, he boasted to other villagers that the prediction of Lok Kru Oek Ei was very accurate. From that day on, Lok Kn, Oek Ei became famous and many peOple went to him for help. One day. the king's daughter had an abdominal abscess. It was so painful that she cried noisily. The king ordered some royal servants to look for any traditional healer who could make the abscess break to relieve his daughter's pain. The royal servants met with some villagers who boasted that Lok Kru Oek Ei Could predict accurately. The royal servants went back to tell the king, who quickly sent for Lok Kru Oek Ei. Lok Kru Oek Ei was very scared when the royal servants told him about the king's daughter's illness, but he could not do anything, so he got on a palanquin to go to the royal palace. When he was on half-way, Lok Kru Oek Ei tried to find a way to escape, so he askal the carriers to put him down so that he could go to relieve himself. He walked into the forest in an attempt to run away, but the royal servants tailed him closely. Then, he Saw an egret in a pond and he exclaimed: "Kok Krorttg Kpuos Changkrorng Chaot (which literally means an regret that is very tall) and when he walked on, he saw a rabbit. The rabbit was so startled that it jumped on a frog. The frog cried "Wop!" and jumped into a grassy bush. Lok Kru Oek Ei could not run away, so he came back to get on the palanquin. In the royal palace, he was so frightened that he walked with shaky legs and arms. The king invited him to enter the room of his daughter, who was crying out of pain. Seeing the princess crying, Lok Kru Oek Ei pitied her very much, but he could not do anything to help her because he did not know anything, but then he thought of what had happened in the forest when he was trying to escape, so he shouted: "Kok Kromg Kpuos Changkrorng Chaot Tonsary Lotphlaot Kangkep Srek Wap (which means an egret is so tall and when the rabbit jumps, the frog cries "Wap") and then he spat over the princess' abscess. Hearing the strange words of Lok Kru Oek Ei, the princess burst out laughing, breaking her abscess which was about to break by itself and the pain was completely gone after all the puss had oozed out. Seeing that, the king believed that Lok Kru Oek Ei was really very good, so he ordered a new Buddhist temple and new buildings to be built in the pagoda and he supported that pagoda permanently. From then on, more people went to hold religious festivals at that pagoda than others. A long time later, there was a severe drought in the country. The weather was hot and some lakes and small rivers dried up, making a lot of cattle die. There was chaos among the people. They went to seek help ' from the king, who ordered the royal servants to go to invite Lok Kru Oek Ei to predict it. The royal servants brought a palanquin to invite Him. Lok Kru Oek Ei was very afraid as he did not know how to predict it, so he thought that the king would have him executed. With that thought, Lok Kru Oek [it ran into the forest, but luckily, the forest spirit in that forest took pity on him, so he transformed himself into a mother frog and a son frog talking to each other: The son frog said: "Mother! Mother! When does the rain fall? It is so hot?" The mother frog replied: "Within seven days, there will be a heavy rain. It will fall for seven days and seven nights, flooding the people's mortars and pestles!" Hearing that, Lok Kru Oek Ei was very happy as he would save his life again, so he returned to the pagoda and got on the palanquin to go to the royal palace. Lok Kru Oek Ei told the king what the mother frog had told her son. The king disseminated the news to all the people to keep their things well because there would be a heavy rain which would flood everywhere. When it started raining on the first day, all the people were very happy, but when it kept raining continuously, the people could not go anywhere. They could not even find a place to keep their cattle. They were cold and shivered. The people went to Lok Kru Oek Ei to ask him to stop the rain. Seeing crowds of people walking toward the pagoda, Lok Kru Oek Ei ordered one of his students to go to ask about their intention. Ah Keang went to ask them and knew that they came to ask Lok Kru Oek Ei to stop the rain. Lok Kru Oek Ei said to Ah Keang: "When they come here, I will pretend to be angry and run after you to beat you so that they will not ask me.” When the people arrived, Lok Kru Oek Ei snatched a stick to beat Ah Keang. Ah Keang ran out of the pagoda and Lok Kru Oek Ei followed him closely. Then, the rain stopped. The people were very happy and said: "Lok Kru runs to beat Ah Keang and the rain stops." After the rain had stopped for three or four days, the sky was still cloudy and the people could not dry anything due to having no sunlight, so they went to Lok Km Oek Ei again. Lok Kru Oek Ei started running after Ah Kork just as he did it with Ah Keang. When he was running after Ah Kork, the clouds floated away and the sun shone brightly. The people were very glad and they shouted: "Lok Kru beats Ah Kork to make the sun shine." It is this point that the early people and , children often shouted that: "To beat Ah Keang to stop the rain and to beat Ah Kork to make the sun shine." A long time later, the king celebrated a solemn festival in the royal palace and he ordered a royal servant to go to invite Lok Kru Oek Ei to preach semen because the king considered him the most knowledgeable. so he (the king) offered him the highest seat. Lok Km Oek Ei was very scared and he did not know what to do, so in the middle of the night, he burnt down the pagoda. In the morning, Lok Km Oek Ei went to the royal palace. A priest beat a gong three times to signal Lok Km Oek Ei to start preaching, but Lok Km Oek Ei burst out crying and looked at the king. The king said: "Reverend, sir! Why do you cry?" Lok Km Oek [51' said: "Your Majesty, I can not preach because I am very sorry for all the scriptures which were bumt down last night." Then, the king asked other monk to preach instead. The place where the pagoda of Lok Km Oek Ei was located still exists until the present time. It is in the Angkor Roeng village, Preah Sre conunune, Udong distn'ct, Kompong Speu province. That place is now called "Tuol Oek Ei" hill.
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